Principal Investigator(s):
United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census

Summary:

Master Area Reference Files (MARFs) link geographic areas
with their respective numeric codes. This data collection is a
five-digit ZIP-code equivalency file created for the 1980 Census of
Population and Housing. The data contain geographic items from
Summary Tape Files 1A and 3A, as well as total population and
housing unit counts. This equivalency file was created to allow
users to prepare additional data summaries relevant to ZIP-code
areas. The file enables users to equate detailed record files
having ZIP codes with census geographic units. This national file
is hierarchically sequenced by geographic area.

Master Area Reference Files (MARFs) link geographic areas
with their respective numeric codes. This data collection is a
five-digit ZIP-code equivalency file created for the 1980 Census of
Population and Housing. The data contain geographic items from
Summary Tape Files 1A and 3A, as well as total population and
housing unit counts. This equivalency file was created to allow
users to prepare additional data summaries relevant to ZIP-code
areas. The file enables users to equate detailed record files
having ZIP codes with census geographic units. This national file
is hierarchically sequenced by geographic area.

Study Description

Citation

United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Census of Population and Housing, 1980 [United States]: Master Area Reference File (MARF) 5. ICPSR08323-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1985. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08323.v1

This hierarchical file contains 589,491 records.
There are seven possible record types sequenced as follows: (1)
state (including the District of Columbia), (2) county, (3) minor
civil division (MCD) or census county division (CCD), (4) place or
segment within MCD/CCD or remainder of MCD/CCD, (5) census tract
or block numbering area (BNA), (6) block group (BG) or, for areas
not block-numbered, enumeration district (ED), and (7) school
district or ZIP-code area. There are approximately 95 variables in
the dataset.